Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care of Des Moines has signed a contract with nationwide health care plan provider Humana Inc. that will allow eligible patients to consult with pharmacists about potential duplications or conflicts in their medication.
The service is called Medical Therapy Management and is aimed at Medicare and retail clients of Humana, one of the nation's largest health care insurers. A Humana spokeswoman could not say how many of the insurer's 10.3 million customers might be eligible for the service.
The service will be valuable to many older patients because doctors don't always know, or pay attention, to other prescriptions that a person takes, said Tom Halterman, Outcomes chief executive said. A pharmacist trained in medical therapy management can look at the whole picture and suggest changes that help the patient and save the insurer money, he said.
The service is especially important for older people who end up seeing multiple doctors for different ailments said Halterman.
To create the service, he said, Outcomes joined with two local technology companies, Spindustry Interactive, who developed the web-based system and Lightedge Solutions, who provides the data center network, to create a Web-based service that pharmacists can use nationwide to obtain payment from Humana when they provide advice to patients taking multiple prescriptions.
Outcomes has established a nationwide network of 25,000 pharmacists who will participate in the service, Halterman said.